With the arriving of the new millenium, the CHLNEWS change is format to become a monthly issue.  Every month, you will see article on what going on the league.  This first issue is a special edition.  In this issue you only see some articles written by our new reporter and analyst.  I like to thanks them to accept the offer and welcome them inside the chlnews.  Thanks to Kurt Lashuk our new Western Conference Analyst, thanks to John Leipert our new Eastern Conference Analyst, Thanks to our new reporters Billy Young and Eugene Kogan for their participation in the publishing of this special issue.  And Finally a special thank to our editorialist Siman Zsolt.  He will write "The Commish Word" every issue.  In that word he will take position in the event occure in the league.

The ChlNews is a democratic paper.  His mission is to give the opportunity to all gm in the CHL to write his idea and to share it with all others.  Plus the ChlNews have the objectif to entertain the readers.  So every gm in the league are welcome to write an article.  To be sure nobody already work on this subject is always better to confirm with the editor before write it down.

Half of the 4th season in the CHL past.  Is now the time to look if our prediction happended.  As we will see in the Reviews some situation wasn't predicted at the very begining.  Some players suprises everybody with them performance and others dissapoint.

Plus to all stars game arrive.  a little article on the selection of the first all stars teams are present in this issue.  As every season, some players missing!

On that, hope you enjoy the new formula of the ChlNews. 

Eric Brunelle
CHLNEWS manager
Anaheim GM

Siman Zsolt
The Commish
Boston GM

All stars players voting

As every years, the half season mean the All stars game.  This year as every year all GMs of the CHL will vote to get there favorites players at this game.  The ways that best player get at this game as a first team selected have no choice to create some strange situation.  In this article, we will see some of the strange think happend, who surprising every body in the league because they are nomminees and finaly who's missing in that list of nomminees.

First, it's pretty hard to built a respectable list without some mistakes.  As every years some players aren't in for a mysterious reasons.  This year the list propose lots of great players,  But sometimes, specially for the selection of the goalie we could see than some player missing.

In the Eastern Conference,  The nomminee are Belfour, Roy, Burke, Hasek and Thibault.  All these player have a wonderful season and they nomination are justify.  But, when you put one player in the list you must put aways one others.  In that way, some player better than some player in that list was forgetten.

Exemple, John Vanbiesbrouck.  He's actually the best goaltender in the CHL in Goal average per games with his 1.73 and he at the second position in Shutout wihnt 4 in 23 games.   By himself he led the Islanders as the best defensive team in the league.  Probably, he will win the Jenning trophy this season.  But he's not in the nominne list !.

Another Goalie must be in the list, Arhur Irbe.  With only two loses in 22 games he brings to Carolina the opportunity to be competitive and possibli to be in the playoff.  Without his performance, this team won't be in the race.  Actually Hurrican are at the 3rd rank in the Eastern Conference.  At the Beginning we predict then this team should be at the end of the ranking.  As Vanbiesbrouck he's not in the list.

Of course all actual nominee have his place but these two players must to be in too! 

In the Western Conference the situation is the same.  Damian Rodhes is the best goaltender of the conference actually with a 2.15 GAA.  This average is better than all nominees average.  But he's not in the list! Same things happened with Roman Turek.

Beside the goaltender position the list is more representative of who's the best in the league and who must going at the all-stars games.  Some suprising names are in.  Hawgood, Ference, Richter, Karalahti, Plante, Svejkovsky in the East and Mara, Allen, Berg, Regehr, Bartecko, Beranek, Hlavac, Shannon, Brendl, Drake in the West.  all Theses players have his place in this list and nobody expect them there at the very begining of the season.

They missing!

Every season some player was always in the list of nominee.  Even if this season is good for them they aren't in the list for different reason.  What happen to Brian Leetch ?  He's doing as Vancouver did! not pretty good!  From Ottawa, Teemu Selanne 100 rated player isn't in the nominees list.  Some player miss close to be in.  Darryl Sydor with 14 Pts doesn't figure out even if he's equal with Berg, Duchesne, and Regehr.  Paul Coffey are in the same situation with is 14pts. 

One of the biggest deception is Chris Chelios.  Whit is high salary he should get in the playoff game.  But with his 5 pts in 37 games he won't get in the playoff by the vote.

All these players will probably get in the game after the Gm vote.  The coach of every conference will probably draft Mark Messier, Alexi Zhamnov, Doug Gilmour, Adams Oates, Tony Amonte, Zigmund Palfy, Niklas Lindstrom, Scott Nidermayer, Joe Sackic, Sergei Federov, Brendan Shannahan, Teemu Selanne and more.  All these players usually get in the nominees list and aren't these season to let them place to some young and no-name players. 

Well let see who will be pick by the GM.

Here is my prediction about who will be in the starting team of the All stars games.

In the East:

Well that's just a prediction!

Eric Brunelle
Editor and Anaheim GM

With the San Jose Sharks past the halfway point in the season, it is time to review the first half of the season in the exciting Western Conference.

     The Edmonton Oilers are where everyone expected them to be, leading the division by three points over the St. Louis Blues.  The Oilers lead the conference because of their potent offense and their ability to score on the man advantage.  Their 22 power play goals give them 11 more than the next best Dallas Stars.  Brett Hull, normally known for his goal scoring, leads the Oilers in points with 26 assists, 34 points and
only eight goals.  Yashin, who has become the team sniper leads them in goals with 16, one more goal than both defense man Sergei Gonchar and young right winger Martin Prochazka who may turn out to be the biggest surprise of the year.  This is good news to Edmonton fans as Valeri Zelepukin will be out at least another two months.  If Prochazka keeps up his strong play, Zelepukin may only be able to find ice time with the muckers on the fourth line when he comes back from his injury.  Edmonton
will again be the team to beat in the second half of the season.      The St. Louis Blues, who trail the Oilers by only 3 points, have found another way to success... defense.  The Blues are tied with Nashville for the least goals against.  Led by goalie Curtis Joseph, who is having another outstanding year, the Blues are ready to give the
Oilers a run for top spot.  The only thing stopping them, however, is their measly 3 power play goals.  If they are to have a shot at first in the Western Conference, they will need to improve significantly on the man advantage.  Amazingly, the top goal scorer in the Western Conference, Josef Beranek with 17 goals, does not have a single
power play goal for the St. Louis Blues.  The always gritty Geoff Courtnall leads the team in assists (17) along with 61 penalty minutes.  With no significant injuries, St. Louis could give Edmonton a scare during the second half of the season if they can get Beranek, Courtnall, Weight and Amonte to put the puck in the net on the power play.

  Tied for second place in the conference is the offensively talented Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.  Anaheim, with only five less goals than Edmonton, can run and gun with any team in the Conference.  Of course a lot of goals are going to be scored on a team that employs the top center in the conference, Mats Sundin.  In his usual all-star fashion,
Sundin leads the conference in points with 41.  Shawn McEachern is having a great year and is second on the team in both points (35) and goals (11).  Talented offensive defense man Sandis Ozolinsh has a shot at 20 goals, already amassing 10 goals and 10 assists.  Mild disappointment Ray Whitney, who was Nashville's leading scorer last year, has already landed on his third team this year.  After spending time in Colorado and Calgary, Whitney is now lucky to be getting ice time on the third line in Anaheim... a big stretch from being the top point scorer on the number one line for the Predators last season.  If Anaheim were to meet Edmonton in the Western finals, and they just might, a lot of goals will be scored between the two teams and the goalies involved may need to repair their shattered egos once the offense has done their job.

    The San Jose Sharks may have the best goal tender in the conference guarding their net.  Byron Dafoe has played an amazing 30 games for the Sharks.  Along the way, Dafoe has collected 15 wins, 10 losses and 5 ties, along with a 2.20 goals against average.  Making Dafoe's job easier are dmen Aki Berg and Brad Stuart, both with impressive plus/minus numbers.  Young center Petr Sykora is having a breakout year,
leading the team with 10 goals and 15 points.  Almost as impressive are his 3 power play goals, 3 game winning goals and zero minutes in penalties all while missing 9 games due to injury.  Wendel Clark, the tough veteran, leads the team in goals and is pressing as hard as his, not so young, body allows him to.  Clark has played in every game this
year, managing to allude the injury bug.  This may be Clark's last year and he certainly is playing like a man on a mission. If Clark can stay healthy for the second half of the season, San Jose is guaranteed a playoff spot.

   The Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames are both tied for fifth spot, with 46 points a piece.  Center Trevor Letowski, of the Kings, is on pace to get 35 goals which would be quite the accomplishment for the youngster.  His 16 goals, which lead the team, can be credited to the whopping 167 shots that he has taken.  With a player this talented, it would be a crime to not give him the green light to shoot whenever he
has the chance.  Holik, having a strong year himself, has already amassed 30 points.  The defense is led by veterans Shawn Chambers and Glen Wesley, whose play in their own end has made Stepane Fiset's job between the pipes alot easier.  The acquisition of rugged right winger Mike Grier may give the Kings an extra push towards the playoffs if he can improve upon his 6 goals and 13 points.

     The new star in Calgary is second on his team in points, has 8 goals, 22 assists, 42 penalty minutes and is plus 10... and he's a  defense man... and he's injured.  Paul Mara had the Calgary fans jumping out of their seats with excitement every time he touched the puck. Mara, who trails team leading German Titov by 6 points, is a coaches
dream, on offense and defense.  One aspect that Mara needs to help the Flames in, when he returns, is the power play.  In order for Mara to make that transition from being good to great, he must help quarterback the Calgary Flames power play in order to improve upon the Flames 5 power play goals.  There is still no word from Calgary on how long Mara is expected to be out.  It's not all bad news in Calgary, however, Saku Koivu has been skating and is expected back soon.  He should add some spark that the Flames may miss due to Mara's absence. Overall, the Flames offense is third, behind only the Oilers and the Ducks.  Penalty killing has not been a problem for the Flames, who have allowed only 5 goals while being a man down.  If the Flames ever get healthy, they should be able to make a run at home ice advantage for the first round
of the playoffs. 

     If there was ever a chant in the Nashville arena, no fans remember it.  The new chant for the Nashville faithful is "Lubos", as in Lubos Bartecko.  It would not be improper for you now to say to yourself, 'Lubos who?'.  Bartecko who was picked up by Nashville as a free agent has taken this fairly new hockey city by storm.  The rookie left winger leads the team in points with 33 (13 goals).  Bartecko also leads the team in assists (20) and is a team leading plus 16.  There is no doubt that Nashville owes much of their success to this young man.  Michael Nylander, who started the season off centering the third line, leads the team in goals with 15.  Nylander will become a free agent this summer so he may be trying to raise his stock in the CHL.  Two way players, and recent acquisitions, Mike Peca and Robert Lang have helped the Predators amass decent numbers on the power play and also have proven to be vital penalty killers.  Big things were expected for Igor Korolev when Nashville pried him away from Washington at the beginning of the season.  While being fourth in points, he has only managed 3 goals in 40 games.  Korolev has played on every line on the team and just cannot seem to find his scoring touch.  Veteran goalie Mike Richter has been outstanding for the Predators and just seems to get better with every season.  The cash trade for goalie Bob Essensa has made the Nashville goaltending situation stronger as goalie Steve Passmore did not perform well enough in his few starts to retain the backup goal tender job.  Paul Coffey is having another good offensive year and is ahead of both Dimitri Yushkevich and Bret Hedican in points (14).  With no real
superstars on the team (after trading away offensive genius Sergei Fedorov, who struggled at the beginning of the year) the Nashville Predators will need a team effort to qualify for the 2000 playoffs.      The Dallas Stars have the most talented defensive corps in the Western Conference.  With players like Chris Pronger, Larry Murphy,
Chris Chelios, Rhett Warrener and Greg DeVries, one would think that scoring on the Stars would be quite difficult.    Injuries, however, have sidelined Chelios, DeVries, Warrener and Pronger, who leads Dallas defense men in points (20).  With so many defense men out at one time, Dallas has entered the year 2000 with a challenge to find replacements for the injured players. In fact they have allowed the second most goals
in the conference and this may get worse until the defense starts healing.  Up front, Dallas is led by Pavel Brendl (13-22-35) and Jason Arnott (15-19-34).  Veteran Mark Messier is looking forward to getting into the playoffs, but must use his leadership to help them through this injury riddled beginning to the millennium.  Each defense man that comes back from injury for the Dallas Stars makes them a stronger team.  Let's hope for Dallas fans that the defense heals fast enough to make a
serious effort for the playoffs.

     This rounds out the top eight positions in the conference.  Due to time constraints, this reporter will have to review the remaining five teams on another date.  All of the teams have a chance at the playoffs as only 22 points separate the first team from the last.  It should be an exciting finish to an already great first half of the season.  Good
luck to all GMs in the CHL!

Kurt 
Nashville GM

 The CHL has hit the half way point, if we is was a horse race the track annoucer could be yelling over the load speaker. "They have hit the half mile pole and are coming for home." I thought we could look at the teams in the Eastern division and how they where prodicted to finish. Running down the teams in the standings as they apear as of this writing. 

  New Jersey sits on top with 60 points. At the start of the season  this was said about the Devils  "Last season i tought NJ was the best team in the league... I as right.  This season i believe the run to lead the league will be closer but NJ will probably lead again!" The crystal ball was clear on this one, but then again it wasn't that hard to pick. With players like Jagr, Lindros, Modano, Leclair and backstopped by Eddie Belfour. This team reads like who's who of the hockey world. It looks like in the east the road to the cup will go through New Jersey.

  Boston sits in 2nd place amassing 52 points thus far. Looking back to the start " Boston have one of the good team in East.  They will run for playoff spot if Tkatchuk and Bourque lead them there."  Boston's line-up has been bolstered by the accquasition of Peter Forsberg, Boston was picked to finish 5th but with the improvments to the team looks to finish higher.

    Next is Carolina in 3rd at 51 points. This team has been a big surpirse in the east, no bigger than to me and I am the GM. "If the goalies make miracle playoff spot is possible!" was the prediction at the seasons begining. The only thing is I think that the Goalies have been performing miracles. The Canes where picked to finish 13th this year but a playoff spot and a higher finish is in the works. Go figure!

    The New York Islanders slid into 4th spot tied with 48 points. " What a great offensive.  Hope score will balanced backup goalies job!" was quoted to kick off the season. This is a great looking line up too Kariya, Demitra, Sakic and Primeau. They where picked for 4th and are fighting for that spot with Montreal.

    Montreal is in 5th also with 48 points "Montreal have one of the best team in the league.  Cup is a realistic objective." was what we read at the start of this season. Montreal has a very explosive line up with the likes of the Bure brothers, Fleury and Robitaille compliment them. Montreal was penciled to finish 2nd and if they team keeps playing as steady as they have should climb close to it.

    Buffalo is next with 47 good for 6th place. "For sure, Sabres have a worst team then last season." was written about them at the beginning. The Sabres are getting scoring from a couple of unlikly sources Tim Connolly who leads the team in points and Derek King who tops the team in goals. They where picked for 10th spot but a playoff spot is more likely.

    In 7th spot we find Ottawa at the 45 point mark. Season opening found this written about the Senators "Last Season Ottawa surprised with his good situation!" This is a team I thought would be a lot higher with its line up, Satan, Selanne and Mogilny. Picked to finish 3rd Ottawa will be hard pressed to climb that high.

    New York Rangers occuipy 8th spot with 43 points. This is the surprise of the east thus far " Playoff ... not sure!" was opening day quote but the Rangers have pulled rabbits out of hats, picked to finish in the bargain basement playoffs seem very obtainable. There seems to be a sharp drop off from 8th to 9th.

    In 9th we find Pittsburgh collecting 34 points. "If the offensive going well, Pens could make the playoff."was what we all read at the start of the year. Offense seems to be clicking but have been burned by the 1 goal games. The Pens where predicted to be in 8th and would be there if it wasn't for a slow start.

    Philadelphia take up spot 10 in the east with 32 points.  "Flyers offensive is leading by Whitney, Peca and Sullivan.  An average Power play for next season is predictable." was the opening day quote. Picked to finish 13th. The Flyer line-up has gone through some changes. Whitney, Sullivan and Peca are all gone, replaced by Smyth, Lemieux and Daze. Goal scoring seems to have eluded the team scoring only 75 goals lowest in the east. 

    Tampa Bay holds down 11th also with 32 points. "Well it's will be hard to be part of playoff." was written about the Lightning. Tampa has struggled this season and make finish in the 14th spot where they where predicted to finish.

    The expantion team Atlanta is in 12th with 31 points which if you think about it is not bad for an expantion team, they picked players that other teams didn't want and have gone from there. "This expansion team will be incredible for a new team.  Probably they will run for playoff spot." The Thrashers have made a few trades but I think the 9th place finish could be tough to make this season.

    Washington holds down 13th picking up 30 points. "Offensive is leading by Kozlov, Samsonov, Guerin, Sykora and Maclean.  Lots of player could score more than 20 goals.  That's good !" Only thing is from that opening day statement is that It looks like only 2 players will score 20 goals and Kozlov and Samsonov are the only players of those left and Fedorov has not been leading the team like you would think. 6th was
what was picked for the Caps but I think they will fall far short of that.

    In 14th place we find Florida with 30 points. Looking back we see this written "Panthers is one of the youngest team in the league.  They could wish to get a playoff spot but they will have to work hard for it and to create a great team spirit." The Panthers do have some bright spots in rookies Rico Fata, Patrik Stefan and young players Brendan Morrison and Marian Hossa. This team does have a bright future but
must go through those growing pains. The team was picked to finish 11th and will have to fight to make it that high.

    Which brings us to 15th held onto by Toronto with 21 points.  "This season Toronto expand lots of money to increase is team.  Does Toronto will get in playoff ?  I hope" was quoted at the opening of the seaseon. Picked to finish 7th nuff said. It lookes like some trades soured on the Buds. The team  will be looking to rebuild for next year.

 Thats my look at the Eastern division what will be the final standings...........only time will tell.

John Leipert
Carolina GM